Guide
What Is the Book of Jubilees?
Mid-2nd Century BCE
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The book of Jubilees is a pseudepigraphic work framed as a divine revelation to Moses. It follows the general chronology of Genesis and part of Exodus but includes extensive retellings and elaborations and shows particular concern with calendrical and priestly matters. The book is considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Beta Israel and is preserved in its entirety only in Ethiopic, though fragments in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac are also extant.
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The Festivals and the Calendar Controversy
Jubilees 6–50 (selections)
Amid advocating for a solar calendar, this text offers alternative explanations for the biblical holidays.
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Neglect of Circumcision
Jubilees 15:33–34
I am now telling you that the Israelites will prove false to this ordinance. They will not circumcise their sons in accord with this entire law because they will leave some of the flesh of their…
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Division of the Earth’s Portions to Noah’s Sons
Jubilees 8–9 (selections)
At the beginning of the thirty-third jubilee [1569–1617] they divided the earth into three parts—for Shem, Ham, and Japheth—each in his own inheritance. [This happened] in the first year of…
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Noah’s Daughters-in-Law
Jubilees 7:14–16
He [Ham—Ed.] built himself a city and named it after his wife Neelatamauk. When Japheth saw [this], he was jealous of his brother. He, too, built himself a city and named it after his wife…
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Rebekah’s Dying Wishes
Jubilees 35:6–27
She said to him [Jacob—Ed.], “My son, throughout my entire lifetime I have noticed no improper act in you but only proper one[s]. However, I will tell you the truth, my son: I will die during this…
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Dinah and Bilhah
Jubilees 34:15–17
That day Bilhah heard that Joseph had perished. While she was mourning for him, she died. She had been living in Qafratefa. His daughter Dinah, too, died after Joseph had perished. These three…
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Noah’s Prayer for His Sons
Jubilees 10:1–6
During the third week of this jubilee [1583–1589], impure demons began to mislead Noah’s grandchildren, to make them act foolishly and to destroy them. Then Noah’s sons came to their father Noah and…
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Abraham’s Prayer for Protection and Good Counsel
Jubilees 12:19–21
That night he prayed and said:My God, my God, God Most High,You alone are my God.You have created everything:Everything that was and has been is the product of your hands.You and your lordship I…
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Moses’ Prayer for Israel’s Future Well-Being
Jubilees 1:19–21
Then Moses fell prostrate and prayed and said: “Lord my God, do not allow your people and your heritage to go along in the error of their minds, and do not deliver them into the control of the…
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Terah Blesses Abraham
Jubilees 12:28–29
In the seventh year of the sixth week, he spoke with his father and told him that he was leaving Haran to go to the land of Canaan to see it and return to him. His father Terah said to him:
“Go in…
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Abraham Blesses Jacob
Jubilees 19:26–29
Then he summoned Jacob into the presence of his mother Rebekah, kissed him, blessed him, and said, “My dear son Jacob whom I myself love, may God bless you from above the firmament. May he give…
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Isaac Blesses Jacob and Esau
Jubilees 26:21–24, 33–34
[Jacob’s—Ed.] father Isaac said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son.” He came close and kissed him. When he smelled the fragrant aroma of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Indeed the…
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Isaac Blesses Levi and Judah
Jubilees 31:13–20
He turned to Levi first and began to bless him first. He said to him, “May the Lord of everything—he is the Lord of all ages—bless you and your sons throughout all ages.May the Lord give you and…
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Isaac Blesses Jacob and His Sons
Jubilees 36:15–16
Isaac then said, “May a blessing rest on you, my sons, and on your descendants today because you have given me rest. My mind is not sad regarding the birthright—lest you do something evil about it.…
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Rebekah Blesses Jacob
Jubilees 25:11–22
Then she lifted her face to heaven, extended her fingers, and opened her mouth. She blessed the Most High God who had created the heavens and the earth and gave him thanks and praise. She said,…
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The Temple Mount as the Navel of the World
Jubilees 8:19
He knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of holies and is the residence of the Lord; [that] Mount Sinai is in the middle of the desert; and [that] Mount Zion is in the middle of the navel of the…
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Edni in Jubilees
Jubilees 4:20
During the twelfth jubilee, in its seventh week [582–588], he [Enoch—Ed.] took a wife for himself. Her name was Edni, the daughter of Daniel, the daughter of his father’s brother. In the sixth year of…
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Betanosh in Jubilees
Jubilees 4:28
In the fifteenth jubilee, in the third week [701–707], Lamech married a woman whose name was Betanosh, the daughter of Barakiel, the daughter of his father’s brother. During this week she gave birth…
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Emzara in Jubilees
Jubilees 4:33
In the twenty-fifth jubilee Noah married a woman whose name was Emzara, the daughter of Barakiel, the daughter of his father’s brother—during the first year in the fifth week [1205]. In its third year…
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Jacob and Esau Battle
Jubilees 37:1–38:14
On the day that Isaac, the father of Jacob and Esau, died, Esau’s sons heard that Isaac had given the birthright to his younger son Jacob. They became very angry. They quarreled with their…
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Jubilees on Pharaoh’s Daughter
Jubilees 47:5
At that time Tarmuth, Pharaoh’s daughter, went out to bathe in the river and heard you [Moses] crying. She told her slaves to bring you, so they brought you to her.
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Jubilees on Israel as a Holy Progeny
Jubilees 16–30 (selections)
All the descendants of his [Abraham’s—Ed.] sons would become nations and be numbered with the nations. But one of Isaac’s sons…
Related Guide
What Are the Pseudepigrapha?
ca. 200 BCE–200 CE